Govt to address the looming hunger in Siavonga

Siavonga, May 9th, 2013, ZANIS —- Government says it is not sitting idle to address the hunger situation in Siavonga District.

Siavonga District Commissioner Brave Mweetwa says already government has sent a team of experts to the area to assess the hunger situation in the area.

Mr. Mweetwa said that recently experts from the ministry of agriculture were sent to the District where they did an assessment on the hunger situation in the area.

He said as a result of this assessment, the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU) office had also visited the district to analyze the situation.

‘’ I can confirm to the general public that officers from the ministry agriculture within the district did an assessment on hunger situation in the area and the report triggered the DMMU who last week came in the district to do the in depth assessment, ’’ he said.

He said according to the report from a DMMU team revealed that there was hunger in the district.

‘’ The final assessment has been done by the DMMU but I cannot confirm their final findings now and as government we need to move in and help through the vice president’s office with relief food, ’’ he said.

“But as government we need to be very careful on the timing of sending relief food because we still have a long way to go this is just May and the critical months that people needs food are October, December, January, and February and probably March.

“ It’s just unfortunately that in Siavonga the reports of hunger start as early as March, April and May,” said Mweetwa.

Mweetwa however assured the residents of Siavonga that very soon government will send relief food in the district and hunger will be no more.